Pharmacies have traditionally used labor intensive methods of accepting, prioritizing, and dispensing prescriptions requested by patients, physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and others. For example, a typical prescription scenario may include a patient visiting a pharmacy to request that a prescription be filled. If the patient does not wait for the prescription to be filled then a subsequent phone call by a pharmacy staff member may notify the patient when the prescription has been filled and is ready for pick-up. A return visit by the patient to pickup the prescription may follow.
Each step of the typical prescription scenario requires interaction between the patient and the pharmacy staff. In addition, many steps are required to be performed by the pharmacy staff between the time that the prescription is ordered and the time the prescription is delivered to the patient. Upon receipt of the request, a variety of tasks may be performed such as, but not limited to, logging the prescription order into the prescription system, checking the availability of the drug for the prescription order, prioritizing in time the prescription order with other prescription orders, verifying insurance coverage, checking for the possibility of using a generic drug substitute, placing one or more phone calls to the prescriber, checking for the possibility of drug interactions, checking for a patient's drug sensitivity, dispensing the proper drug in the proper quantity, and printing and affixing labels to the prescription. Thus, the efficiency of the prescription workflow is important to the success and profitability of a pharmacy.
The safety of patients is also important to the success and profitability of the pharmacy. Ensuring patient safety requires that the pharmacy staff have expertise in a variety of areas. In addition to medical expertise, for example, a pharmacist must possess the organizational skills necessary to manage a high volume of prescriptions while ensuring that each patient's prescription is properly dispensed at the proper dosage level and in the proper amount. This requires a timely flow of both patient and prescription information in an easy-to-understand format to the pharmacy staff during the time between receiving the prescription order and delivering the prescription to the patient (“order-to-delivery”). Further, this also requires the timely flow of both patient and prescription information in an easy-to-understand format to the patient and the prescriber.
In addition to efficiency and patient safety, patient satisfaction and patient loyalty are important factors in determining the success of the pharmacy. Quick delivery of the prescription to the patient is one way of ensuring patient satisfaction. If quick delivery of the prescription is not possible then adherence to promised delivery time may suffice. In that case, the patient will know when he or she may pick-up the prescription. Accordingly, the patient will not have to make repeated trips to the pharmacy.
A few systems have been developed to assist pharmacy staffs in the tasks associated with accepting, prioritizing, and dispensing prescriptions. However, these systems have primarily been directed to discrete tasks such as allowing patient and prescriber access to prescription ordering using the Internet or e-mail. Further, current systems do not address the overall flow of the process from receipt of the prescription order to delivery of the prescription to the patient.